Women's World T20 2018: Four Ireland cricketers call it a day from international cricket

Ireland Women didn’t have a memorable campaign in the ICC Women’s World T20. They slipped to their fourth loss against New Zealand on Saturday as their tournament ended without a victory. Meanwhile, two of their superb cricketers and twin sisters, Isobel Joyce and Cecelia Joyce, announced their international retirement soon after the game. They let the rest of the team know about the same during the team huddle after the end of the match.

Ireland lost their last group game by eight game after they put up only 79 runs after opting to bat first. The White Ferns then romped home in the eighth over itself with Sophie Devine scoring a quickfire half-century. Joyce sisters though didn’t have an outing to remember as Cecelia scored 1 run while her sister failed to open her account.

Isobel, who made her debut way back in 1999 against India, went on to play 79 ODIs for Ireland accumulating 995 runs and picking 66 wickets. In 55 T20Is, the all-rounder took 33 wickets while amassing 944 runs. As far as Cecelia is concerned, she represented Ireland in 57 ODIs and 43 T20Is scoring 1172 and 659 runs.

Even the New Zealand Women gave the two players a guard of honour at the end of game and showed their respect for the way they’ve contributed to Ireland over the years.

Shillington and Metcalfe also retired

Along with Joyce sisters, Clare Shillington and Ciara Metcalfe also decided to hang their boots from international cricket as they had announced it prior to the start of the World T20. Ireland skipper Laura Delany thanked all the four cricketers for their contribution to the game and was aware of the transition they will have to go through over th next few months now.

“I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for us. The next 10-12 months will be about transitioning the team as we don’t have any international fixtures coming up,” she said during the post-match presentation ceremony.

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